1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a fabrication of devices, and more specifically to forming device components with precise dimensions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic disk drive based systems have been widely accepted in the computer industry as a cost-effective form of data storage. In a magnetic disk drive system, a magnetic recording medium in the form of a disk rotates at high speed while a magnetic head “flies” slightly above the surface of the rotating disk. The magnetic disk is rotated by means of a spindle drive motor. The magnetic head is attached to or formed integrally with a “slider” which is suspended over the disk by a suspension assembly, which in turn is attached to an actuator arm. As the magnetic disk rotates at an operating speed, the moving air generated by the rotating disk in conjunction with the physical design of the slider lifts the magnetic head, allowing it to glide or “fly” slightly above and over the disk surface on a cushion of air, referred to as an air bearing.
When the slider rides on the air bearing, write and read heads are employed for writing magnetic impressions to and reading magnetic signal fields from the rotating disk. The read and write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates according to a computer program to implement the writing and reading functions. A write head typically employs ferromagnetic pole pieces which are capable of carrying flux signals for the purpose of writing magnetic impressions into a track on a magnetic medium, such as a rotating magnetic disk. A coil layer is embedded in an insulation stack which is located between the first and second pole pieces. Processing circuitry digitally energizes the write coil which induces flux into the first and second pole pieces so that flux signals at the ABS write the magnetic impressions or bits into the track of the rotating disk.
To achieve the high areal densities required by the data storage industry, the magnetic heads are made with commensurately smaller dimensions. For example, the some magnetic head components may have a feature size of less than 100 nm. However, as the magnetic heads are made smaller, the likelihood of fabrication defects increases, which may result components of the magnetic heads being formed with undesired dimensions. The dimensions of the components may be crucial to the proper functioning of the magnetic heads.